Under the Whomping Willow
by Skyfire21
Summary: What happened to cause Sirius to send Severus Snape to the Whomping Wilow that night? What happened when he entered the dark tunnel under the school grounds...read and review, no flames please.
1. The Plan

"Don't worry, everything will be fine...." Sirius Black looked at his companions and smiled winningly at them. He leaned casually against the stone wall outside of the Gryffindor common room crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
  
"And maybe it will finally get him to leave us alone." He told them in his most logicallly persuasive tone of voice.  
  
  
Peter and James looked at each other, their eyes betraying the doubt they felt about his latest plan. After a moment or two of hesitation, however, a malicious grin spread across Peter's boyish features.  
  
  
"I think it's great idea," he began, enthusiastically, "that lousy git has tortured us from the first day we arrived at Hogwarts! How many times has he gotten us into trouble? Followed us around to see what we were up to, the sneaky bastard...." he scowled at the ground kicking a rock across the sidewalk.  
  
  
Sirius smiled triumphantly, then shifted his gaze to James.   
  
  
"I don't care, it's too dangerous, something could go wrong." James glared at Sirius, his green eyes resolute.  
  
  
"C'mon Prongs, we're the Marauders!" Sirius spread his arms wide in a gesture to indicate the obvious fact that they controlled the school, "No one will really get hurt, i mean, it's all in good fun...we'll just scare him a little...."  
  
  
"No!" James looked at his partners in crime each in turn, "I know how horrid he's been to us over the years" he let out an exasperated sigh, "but just think how bad you'd feel, and how much trouble we would be in if something did go wrong, if he did get hurt....or even killed..."  
  
  
Sirius and Peter stood silent, their faces solemn. The seriusness of what James had said took a few minutes to sink in. He could die.   
  
  
Sirius shrugged.  
  
  
"Yeah, i guess your right..." he tried to brush off the very real concern he felt, "I mean we could be expelled for getting that lousy little snitch killed, i mean, all the teachers love him..."   
  
  
Both Sirius and James started to laugh, Peter joined in a little reluctantly. He was still a upset that they were not going to trick Severus, the Slytherin bane of their existence.  
  
  
"Well, I' m going up to bed. Unlike some lazy bums i know, i actually have to get up tomorrow," James flashed a weak, insincere smile, "Quidditch practice."  
  
  
Sirius threw an arm around his shoulder as they made their way to the portrait hole, where the Fat Lady waited for them.  
  
  
"Awww, poor baby's got to get up early..." He pinched James' cheek playfully. The dark-haired quidditch plyaer shoved him off as they both reached the portrait laughing.   
  
  
"Serpens Mortis," Sirius stated clearly in his most official sounding voice, his arms folded over his chest. James snickered behind him. As the Fat Lady swung open, Peter punched James playfully in the arm.  
  
  
"Hey, i'll see you guys tomorrow in transfig," he smirked knowingly, "don't forget about the quiz, " He quirked an eyebrow at him and turned on his heel, strutting down the hall to the Ravenclaw dormitory.  
  
  
Sirius and James stood in front of the now open portrait hole, looks of shock plastered on their faces. They looked at each other and gasped simultaniously.  
  
  
"What quiz?!" 


	2. Potions Class

Potions. James and Sirius both simply hated potions class. They were both very talented wizards with tremendous natural ability, but that didn't give them one grain of comfort in potions class.   
  
For one thing, potions was an area of magic that required long arduous hours of study. An idea that the two marauders were not particularly keen on. Second, they always wound up having to take Potions with the Slytherins, and there was no one that hated the Slytherin house more than Gryffindors, especially the marauders. There was one certain Slytherin, however, that seemed to irk them more than most.   
  
James glared at Severus Snape from his seat at the back of the room. Severus, naturally, sat at the very front of the class and at this very moment, was raising his hand to answer yet another question.  
  
"It's Polyjuice potion, the serum that will allow someone to take on the physical appearance of someone else is Polyjiuce potion Professor." He smirked victoriously as he lowered his arm and folded his hand in front of him on his desk again.  
  
"Very good Severus, you are the first student to get that question right in quite a while," the professor, who was also the head of Slytherin house, smiled proudly, "that's five points to Slytherin."  
  
Severus seemed to sit up a bit straighter. He ran a hand through his unkempt, shoulder-length black hair, his pale skin almost glowing in the crude light of the dungeon, and glanced back toward where James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily were sitting, a self-satisfied grin on his face.  
  
As he turned back around to take notes, Sirius turned to James and Remus.   
  
"Look at him," he sneered in a whisper, "even the other Slytherins don't like him, he thinks he's so smart..."  
  
James and Remus looked around the room. Sure enough, his fellow Slytherins were glaring at him with looks of contempt, especially a blond-haired boy who sat directly behind Severus. Lucius Malfoy. He was physically a bit bigger than Snape, but then again, almost everyone was a bit bigger than the skinny 6th year. He glared at Severus as he wrote, bent over his parchment.  
  
"Oh, come on guys," Lily spoke up, she had also overheard their observation, "they are probably just jealous of how smart he is...he never gives them a chance to earn Slytherin points..."   
  
All three heads moved in unison to look at her, heads cocked to the side in confusion. They all wore looks of shocked amazement, looks that made it perfectly clear that they thought she was absolutely nuts.  
  
"What?" she asked innocently, "I was just being open-minded..." when their eyes remained glued on her, the same expressions of shock still evident, she let out a 'humph' and went back to taking notes.   
  
"You guys are so childish..." she muttered under her breath, shaking her head back and forth.  
James quickly dismissed her scoldings with a wave of his hand and leaned in closer to Sirius. Still keeping his eyes on the professor, who was giving out instructions for the potion they would make today, Sirius leaned slightly to his left toward James.   
  
"We'd better be careful, " James whispered hoarsely, "he's probably still mad about that rhyming curse we put on him last friday, it took him till monday to find the countercurse," both boys tried to stifle a snicker.   
  
"Yeah, he spoke in rhyme all weekend! It was great!" Sirius grinned and chuckled softly, glancing up at where Snape sat.  
  
James laughed as well, but then his face turned more serious.  
  
"That's all well and good but, he might be planning something in retaliation, so be sure to keep on your guard..."   
  
Sirius nodded and passed the message on to Remus, who also agreed.  
  
"...and now if you will all pair up and move to sit behind a cauldron," the professor was instructing the class, "you should find that all your ingredients are already at the table...now, remember what we went over, the order of ingredients is very important, if the powdered root of strangle weed is added before the grindylow tongue the results could be very messy, so be careful."   
  
The professor gave the Gryffindors a cold stare.   
  
"Just remember to let it simmer for at least 10 minutes, and...you may begin." he announced with a dismissive wave of his hand.   
  
Everybody began to move to their tables and choose partners. James partnered with Lily and Sirius and Remus worked together as usual. There was an odd number in the class so Severus was forced to work alone, but he always seemed to preffer it that way. He began to deftly chop and sort ingredients at his table, walking every once and a while back to the supply closet for more materials. He glanced back at the groups in the back quite often, more often than usual in fact.   
  
He cast a evil glare in the marauders' direction, aimed particularly, however, at James. His gaze shifted to each of them in turn and finally settled on Lily Evans, his expression softened some, and he smiled faintly. A hint of blush came to his cheeks. He quickly recovered and looked down, chopping the long green stalks in front of him even more furiously than before. Surveying the potion elements in front of him, he quickly discovered that he was out of crushed rosemary leaf and got up from his seat to go retreive some more.   
  
"Hey Snape...you wanna recite some verse for us?" Sirius couldn't resist the quick jab at the pale Slytherin as he passed their table. James and Remus both broke out into barely contained snickering. Lily smiled but didn't laugh with them, she had not approved of their joke, but could not deny the fact that it was pretty funny.  
  
Severus continued to saunter across the floor with a sneer on his features, he didn't stoop to a witty retort this time, he had a better idea. Upon reaching storage closet, Severus quickly scanned the shelves for the jar he was looking for.  
  
"Ah, there it is..." he whispered to himself and stretched grab a small jar near the top shelf. His thin pale fingers curled around the lid of the jar and he twisted with all his might. The jar opened with a sucking pop and a strangely sweet fragrence filled the small space. With small metal instruments he plucked about a spoonful worth of the Rosemary leaf and placed it on his tray. He edged the glass container back where it had been on the shelf and moved to the door. The buzzing conversation outside in the classroom could be heard from the closet, he listened for a certain group.   
  
"What do we do next?" Remus asked Sirius in a slightly nervous voice. Severus smiled a little at this, he was always a little nervous in potions class.   
  
"Well, I know we have to let it simmer for..." Sririus did his best professor impersonation, and wagged a finger at Remus, " 'at least ten minutes...' then we add in the grinylow tongue...."  
  
The voices faded as Severus made his way to the back wall of the closet, he surveyed the contents of the wall for a second time. A slow grin seeped over his features as he located a small bottle on the third shelf with dark-tinted glass and a blue faded lid. White powder could be seen as he turned the jar over in his hand. The Slytherin stood there for a time, seemingly deep in thought. He weighed the situation in his mind.   
  
Putting the jar down, he stared at his hands, pale, thin, long fingers started back at him. He ran one hand through his black hair that seemed to curve just around his jar bone. Greasy black hair. He happened to catch a glimpse of his own reflection in one of the larger jars. Dark eyes, drawn gaunt features.... He stepped back and chanced a look out the door, into the room. Other students were working and talking with each other, their smiles not dimmed by the darkness of the dungeon room and the foulness of the professor's mood. Even the Gryffindors were almost enjoying themselves, especially those...those marauders.   
  
He thought about how humiliated he had been when he was forced to ask the charms teacher a question, in rhyme. Only thought of revenge had kept him from running out of the classroom when even the professor had to stifle a giggle.   
  
He turned away from the door, his mind set. He filled a small cup with the white powder and placed the jar back on the shelf so that the label reading 'Powdered Strangle Weed' faced in. As he walked back out into the room, he watched Remus and Sirius for his chance. Just as he passed their cauldron, they turned around to talk to James and Lily.  
  
'My chance...' he thought to himself. He lifted the small cup filled with strangle weed and, in one quick deftly smooth movement poured the whiteish powder into the two marauder's cauldron. He could not surpress a satisfied grin as he tossed the little cup underneath their table and made his way back to his own desk.   
  
His fellow slytherins looked at him suspiciously, his demeanor seeming even more arrogant than usual. Lucius reached forward and prodded him in the shoulder with a thin finger.  
  
"Just what are you looking so smug about?" he sneered in a whisper when Severus turned around, still grinning slightly. He leaned his arms on the back of his chair and arched his eyebrows.  
  
"You'll find out, in about 3 minutes..." he replied in an slitheringly icy voice, every sylable seeming to gloat his triumph. He turned back around folding his long tapered fingers on the desk in front of him.   
  
Lucius leaned back in his own chair crossing his arms behind his head and, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at the haughty greasy-haired Slytherin in front of him. The room still buzzed with muted chatter as he looked around, anticipating something, but not yet sure what.  
  
'It shouldn't be long now...' Severus' mind simply crackled with anticipation as he waited for his little trap to spring. Just as he turned around to sneak a glance at, the cauldron in question, Sirius and Remus were turning around to find their their potion to be boiling and frothing dangerously.   
  
Sirius let out a small yelp and jumped backward.   
  
"I take it it's not supposed to do that..." Remus also stepped back a pace eyeing the cauldron warily.   
  
"I could be mistaken Moony, but i don't think so...." James stood up trying to get a better view of their cauldron, Lily also stood and put one hand on his shoulder.   
  
The rest of the class was beginning to notice the disturbance and all heads and bodies seemed to be turning in Sirius and Remus' direction. Severus turned slowly, relishing the havoc he was causing for his long time nemises.  
  
"Um, Professor..!" Sirius started to shout, backing farther away from the hissing, spitting concoction. The bubbles were now popping well above the level of the cauldron rim and the liquid had turned a sickly green, when it was supposed to be light orange.   
  
The professor stood quickly, he too noticing the chaos brewing in his classroom. Throwing his quill down on his high desk, he began to walk at a rapid pace toward the desk at the back.   
  
Severus watched him move down the center aisle, his black cloak billowing behind him.   
  
"Three, two..." Snape whispered a countdown to himself, grinning, "...one."  
  
Before The professor had reached the cauldron, there was a massive explosion and a spray of bright green liquid was propelled from the pewter container. The potion cascaded out, splattering the table, the chairs, and the nearest people, namely, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.   
  
Sirius let out a yell as the burning liquid hit his left forearm and right hand. It felt like acid and it sizzled as it made contact with skin. A gasp was heard as Remus was also splashed. His enitire left arm and part of the left side of his face was covered in the wave of green liquid.   
  
No one else was badly hit, they all looked around in confusion as the contents of the cauldron settled down once more. The professor, who had stopped when the explotion hit, continued, almost jogging now, toward the table.  
  
"You put the strangle weed in first didn't you?" he said icily, beginning to inspect the nasty burns starting to appear on the bodies of the students.  
  
"N-no we didn't..." stammered Sirius, "ow...it just kinda...b-blew up!"  
  
Remus, holding one hand to cover the side of his face, and his arm tight against him, nodded weakly in agreement.  
  
Severus' smile faltered. They were hurt, really hurt. He had never meant for them to actually get hurt, just for their cauldron to blow upand get them in trouble, lose them points. In his mind, he debated gathering around them with the Gryffindors to see if he could help. Just as he was deciding, however, Lucius turned around, a wide grin on his face.  
  
"Severus, you tricky git!" he said in mock surprise, " I didn't know you had it in you...that was masterful." He glaced back in the Gryffindor's direction, hearing the moans of pain.  
  
"Well, I..." Severus began weakly.  
  
"You mean, you did that?" Another Slytherin boy turned toward him, "That was great! I wish I'd thought of it..."  
  
"Wow, Sevs, nice job..."  
  
"Way to get those Gyffindors."  
  
"I can't believe it, that was wicked!"  
  
Excited whispers came from all around Severus. For the first time, all the other Slytherins were smiling at him and congratulating him. His chest swelled a little and he seemed to stand a bit taller. He ran a hand through his hair nervously.   
  
"It was pretty good wasn't it?" he began to relish the attention he was receiving. A confident glint shown in his eyes as he looked directly at the two victims. He smiled at them and nodded.   
  
Remus locked eyes with Severus as he acknowledged the fact that he was the culprit. His almond eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. He managed to elbow Sirius in the side in between the professors inspection of them. Sirius too looked over at the thin satisfied-looking Slytherin boy. His features twisted into a grimace and he made move to escape the strong hands of their teacher. Hate and vengence burned in his eyes as the professor pulled him and the now struggling Remus out of the room. Severus' expression faded again when he saw that look, but was reasured by Lucius' hand on his shoulder.   
  
He took one last look at the two marauders as they exited the classroom. Raising one hand to waist level he mockingly slid his fingers against each other in a small wave. As he lowered the arm again, his smile changed instead into a thoughtful frown. For some reason, a voice inside his head was telling him that he had just made a very big mistake. 


End file.
